Wyoming Fly Fishing Locations & Reports

We left Old Faithful at 8am with the intent to fish Slough Creek, Lamar River, & the Yellowstone River providing the water was clear. We didn’t watch closely enough & drove 30 miles past the turn for Slough Creek. By this time it was lunchtime, so we went to Yellowstone Lake for lunch on the beach. We had no idea Yellowstone Lake was so large, 136 square miles. If your going to fish Yellowstone Lake I highly recommend a guide & boat rental from the marina. The lake is so big that it could take you all day just to find a place to fish. Some local expertise is a must.

After Driving the entire Upper Loop and Lower Loop in 5 hours without fishing it was time to return to Old Faithful for some Bitch Creek refreshment & to regain composure. At 4pm we set out to fish the Firehole River on the way to dinner at the Beartooth BBQ in West Yellowstone. The Firehole River was in great shape, easy access, great water & easy to wade. Saw a few freshman jumping, but not much action to speak of…unless you count the wildlife. Nothing better than fly fishing in the middle of a river only to turn around and find you are surrounded on both sides by Elk. In 2 hours of fly fishing the Firehole I tried various rigs, including hoppers, double bunnies, bead head prince nymphs, girddle bugs, caddis & PMDs. I tried trailing most with lightning bugs and ants. Got a couple of small bites, but not much action to speak of. It was a great experience despite the lack of catching action.
After dinner, as planned, we fished the Madison River inside the park just before Madison Junction. MASS, MASS jumpers. I have never seen so many fish jumping during a hatch. It was insane just before sunset and billions of bugs on the water. But, the fish weren’t interested in my offerings. I tried every kind of dry fly I had in the box: caddis, dunns, drakes, anything & everything
It was awesome to see though.